One Step Further
by KageKitsune02
Summary: A Riolu training on Iron Island hears about the Mega-Evolutions of Kalos. Intrigued, he sets off on a journey across continents for the sole purpose of going one step further.
1. Mega-Evolution

So. It's been a while. Can't say I've missed doing this, really. For those of you who don't know me, and I'm suspecting that's 99.9% of you, I'm an old hat at this. I sucked at writing. Still do. But I've gotten better, and this is the first fanfiction I've wrote in nearly 6 years.

At least of publishing quality. I've wrote other shit but I don't talk about that. But for now, enjoy the story. Please review if you feel you can, tell me of any mistakes, or basic stupidity you find. Also, my grammar is crap. I am aware. By the way, do not read anything in my profile if you wish to save your sanity.

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><p>The World of Pokémon.<p>

"The world of Pokémon has many stories and tales to it. Some are true, many are not. The story of the Creator Pokémon, Arceus? Real, or fake? The story of the birth of Mew, the other Pokémon so often credited with the creation of everyone? Real, or fake? Or are they both real? Both fake? No one knows.

"But there are many tales that remain true, because there is evidence for it. The story of Mega-Evolution, a process which further evolves certain Pokémon, is well known, and with documented proof of the action. Does that mean that we know what it is? Of course not. No one, for certain, knows everything about the natural world. But what we do know of Mega-Evolution…" the TV drawled off, cutting off near sharply afterwards with a burst of static.

"Doggone it, worthless TV! Work! I wanted to watch that!" came the shout of the old man. He lived alone in a small house, almost an apartment actually, on an island off the coast of Sinnoh. He was the Keeper of the Caves of Iron Island, a popular training spot for steel and rock types of Pokémon, seeing as they lived there naturally.

Originally Iron Island was a mine, but shortly after starting the excavations certain Pokémon in the area rose up, and started to be more aggressive towards the miners. A few studies on the area were done to show that the mine was originally harmless, as they had thought, but now that it had gone deeper in it was starting to disturb the Pokémon's original habitat.

Immediately, the Pokémon League of Sinnoh declared that the miners were to vacate the island, and leave it alone. They did so, near happily. The island wasn't far from Canalave City, but it was still half a day's travel away. Since then, the Pokémon have taken to exploring the new tunnels on their island, with a few rare species dominating the inward caves.

The Keeper of the Caves was a self-given title, as the Old Man lived alone. He had claimed it was his duty to protect Iron Island from nefarious travelers. Seeing as how the island was nearly filled with trainers from every corner of the world, it was safe to say that he had failed in that. However, he gave a free room for many of the trainers that got hurt battling the wild Pokémon to stay at, so he was allowed to stay.

The only reason Owyn, a small Riolu, knew this was because he had overheard the Old Man shouting on the phone many times that he was the "Keeper of the Caves" and that he had to "stay to protect it!" As it stood now, Owyn was also cursing the faulty wiring of the TV. He wasn't tall enough to look the window to watch it, but it was a good thing to listen to when on a break from training.

Not that he did that often. Taking breaks, not training. He trained a lot. A lot a lot. Even the other Riolu on the island, not that there were that many, trained as much or as hard as he did. They always asked him the same question every time, "Why train so hard? You're just going to get caught."

He always answered them the same way with a grin, as if it was some running joke, "To evolve!"

He always wanted to evolve. He had seen some Lucario fighting the outer Pokémon, such as Graveler or Onix, always at the beck and call of a Trainer, and knew that's what he wanted to do some day. Be as strong as they were, for the protection of all. He could do that, he knew he could!

Although right now his mind wasn't on evolution, but rather on the mechanical device that had once again bugged out from inside the home. "Stupid TV, actually having some worth listening to for once and it goes and does this…" he whispered to himself, ignoring the fact that it did this almost all the time. He kept his senses tuned for any trainers nearby, but at this time of day most of them would be out in the Caves or around the surface, not near the Old Man's house. It's why he felt safe enough to leave the innermost caves.

The Iron Island Caves was a wonder to behold in its entirety, if anyone could wrap their mind around it completely. There were the Outer caves, filled with Pokémon like Geodude, Graveler, and Onix. These were the caves that were built for the mine. The Inner caves had the much rarer Pokémon, such as his own Riolu. That said, the Inner caves were almost built around the outer ones, curving around the Outer ones with only a few places for the Inner caves to peep out into the manmade ones.

Very few Pokémon could navigate the Inner caves successfully. Owyn was not one of them. He could get around, eventually, but in general stuck to pretty much two areas of it. The entrance leading to the outside, and a smaller cave that he had pretty much claimed was his den. The other Riolu had one much like his, and near the same size as well. Of course they argued often who had the bigger one, but let it drop pretty easily.

The TV on the inside of the house kicked back on again, letting the Old Man and Owyn hear the last few minutes of the program, "And that was the 'History of Mega-Evolution'. We hoped you enjoyed watching! Now it's time for the Five o' clock news!

"Fascinating piece! Remember, you can own the 'History of Mega-Evolution' for only 15.99 if you call now, or just go to the Kalos region!" The TV said before static once again filled its screen. Owyn could hear the Old Man sigh from the inside.

"Ha. Kalos. That's more than halfway across the world." The grumpy man said loud enough for Owyn to hear easily.

The words however, struck a chord with Owyn. Mega-Evolution. A process to further evolve? His face almost lit up with a grin, thinking of a bigger and more powerful Lucario. The Pokémon was already strong, but to be better? To be faster, stronger! Oh yes, Owyn would figure out how to Mega-Evolve. He would protect everyone!

His mind filled with possibilities, he snuck back to the Inner cave area. A few of the Geodude woke up around the area as he passed. They looked at him for a few seconds with a glare for waking them up, before falling back asleep. He ignored them of course. The Geodude in the area were always angry at something. Whether it's from stepping next to them, to stepping on them, to knocking a few out, to the rain, something always pissed them off.

Light almost never entered the Inner caves besides the outside entrance, which was barely big enough for Owyn to squeeze through, so it was kind of shock to Owyn to see that the Caves were a lot brighter than they should be. He was about to ask aloud what was going on when he saw it.

There weren't many Riolu on Iron Island. Or rather, there weren't many Riolu in the Inner Caves on Iron Island. Because of this lack of Riolu, and their own fighting capacity, as even if they didn't train they could still hit pretty hard, each one got their own little room. Owyn's was the closest to the entrance, but even he could see the soft glow of a fire coming out of one of the other Riolu's areas.

He could hear voices too, ones that didn't seem too panicked. Must be under control then, or at least as under control as possible. Sure enough, when he looked he could see three other Riolu crowding around a small fire sitting in the middle of the area that often passed for a 'room'.

"Knock knock." Owyn called out, suppressing his own laugh. How many human characteristics have they taken on? It wasn't just him either; all the Riolu did it before entering one of the other's 'rooms'.

"Oh hey Owyn. Just got back from training?" called out one of the furthest ones that could easily look towards the outside. "Come on in and sit for a bit next to the fire."

"How'd you even get a fire in here, Anders?" Owyn asked, sitting down in front of the warm fire. He had never noticed it when outside, but it was cold enough in here to make his fur stand up. The room was sparse, as they all were; a smooth covered wall, probably from some Pokémon's Dig attack, a small thing of sand in the corner to make for a resting area, and that was about it. Well, except for the small woodpile in the opposite corner.

The fire area itself was again, small. Ringed with larger rocks to ensure that any jumping coals wouldn't go anywhere, although all of them thought that there wouldn't be any need to be worried; they lived in a cave.

Anders, the one that had called out to Owyn in the first place, took a moment to answer. "Uh…I asked someone to light a log so we can practice with it." Owyn made a moment to look around at the other three.

"Some practice." He said, not quite scowling but almost there. One of the other two lay on their back.

"Stuff it Owyn, not all of us like to just practice for our humans now like you do."

Anders' ears drooped a bit. "Kai!" he said.

"What? It's true! We'll get plenty of practice once we get captured by someone. Whether it's our choice or if they just flat out beat us. Then there's the other option."

The last one spoke softly, causing Owyn to have to lean in a bit to hear him, "Just be left in the computer permanently? Is that what you want, Kai?"

Kai closed his eyes, trying to ignore the other Riolu. "I can't hear you…and yes, Gabe, that is what I want. A life where we get fed for doing nothing."

Owyn couldn't help but smirk at the easy opening. Both Anders and Gabe looked at him, having the same idea. "But that's what you already have, Kai!" all three said at the same time, their voices echoing off the chamber walls.

"That's kind of the idea!" Kai said, rolling over onto his stomach, his eyes dancing in the flame's light.

"So what are you doing back so early Owyn? You're not usually back until later." Gabe asked. Owyn looked thoughtful for a moment, trying to think of a way to phrase it.

"Heard something interesting at the Old Man's house. Something about Mega-Evolution. Thought I'd come back and see if any others around here know anything more than "go to Kalos".

"Kalos?" Anders said, "Where's Kalos? I've never heard of the place."

"Really Anders? It's a far away continent. To the south of Unova. You know where Unova is right?" Kai asked from his place on the ground. "And I don't think anyone knows anything about Mega-Evolution. Heard of it though. Why? You want to mega-evolve?"

"You know it!" Owyn said, grabbing one of the logs from the woodpile and stuffing it into the dying out fire.

Kai seemed as if he would laugh, but decided at the last second that would take too much effort. "First you need to evolve. Then you need to get captured." He said. The silence reigned around the four with the only sound the now crackling fire.

A new arrival was only sounded by a soft "Knock, knock" at the entrance. Again, it wasn't an actual knock; it was just another Riolu saying the words "knock knock". The group turned around, except for Kai who just continued lying on the ground with his eyes turned towards the fire.

"Hey Lulu! Come on in!" Anders said, motioning the female Riolu to come inside his little "room". She accepted with a small nod before stepping inside. A slight scuffle as the group tried to nudge each other away to make room for her.

"What're you guys talking about?" She asked, sitting next to Anders and Kai. Kai made a slight sound that seemed to sound distinctly like a small chuckle.

"Trainy-boy over here thinks he can mega-evolve." He said, continuing to stare into the flames.

"What's that?" She asked with a tilt of her head. The others of the group seemed to stop for a second, before immediately looking straight at Kai. He sighed.

"A form beyond normal evolution. Rumors say it requires a trainer and a stone. And that's all I got."

"So Owyn's going to get captured?" Lulu asked with a near blank stare. Even for all of them, Lulu was great at masking herself. They had no idea what she was thinking.

Owyn shook his head. "No, I'm going to figure out how to do it without it. Just watch!" he said excitedly. Then he waited a few moments, before sitting back down. "Although I don't really know where to begin. Kalos supposedly holds the secret, but that's a far ways away."

The group stayed silent for a bit, seemingly contemplating the problem, before Gabe spoke up, "Why don't you let a human catch you? You could tell him that you want to go to Kalos. If you get lucky, he might take you."

Anders chuckled a bit. "Maybe, but how would he tell? They can't understand us; they don't know how we write…the communication gap seems too large to tell them something that specific."

"I think Gabe's onto something. Maybe not being caught though…maybe just riding with them?" Lulu asked.

"Would they notice a stowaway?" Owyn asked. He didn't think so though; he heard a lot of programs on TV about a stowaway meeting someone onboard the ships and then thing's happened…he didn't understand them.

Kai laughed. "Nah, they can't notice anything if it's not in front of them. But maybe you don't have to be a stowaway."

"Are you saying I buy a way onboard?"

"Could you? I mean I know you find a lot of change when you go outside." Anders asked. Owyn stared at him blankly.

"Two things. A. How do you know that? And B, how do I tell?" Owyn asked. The others shrugged, not knowing how humans counted their money. Riolu as a whole don't have any currency, because, well, they didn't need it.

The group seemed to snicker a bit, before Anders answered. "In the same order, everyone can hear the coins in your pocket. And I mean the rest of us do it too…just you do it the most. And for how to count I have no idea, but I think I know how we can find out."

"Before or after making an idiot out of him?" Gabe asked the now silent group. The awkward silence that had descended broke immediately as the group started laughing uproariously. Even Owyn had managed a grin at the joke, even if it was at his expense. The sounds echoed almost hollow throughout the caverns.

"Before, obviously! Here's my plan: we leave out some of those coins where the trainers can see them, and see if they all count it up. Once they do, we come in and get 'em back! Simple as that!" Anders explained once the group had died down a bit.

Owyn wasn't ready for the 'simple' explanation, "What, steal the coins back? That's something a Dark-type would do, not us. Besides, how do we know they'd count it up to begin with, and say it aloud. It's better to just go down to the city and ask if that's enough to go to Kalos."

The group stayed silent for a bit as the answer descended upon them. Lulu was the first to grasp it, "So…why don't you do that? It's probably the best answer we have so far." She said softly. Anders seemed thoughtful for a moment, before nodding.

"That's not a half-bad idea. It's simple enough."

And one by one, the group of Riolu decided that that 'plan' was the thing they would do. And by they, they obviously mean Owyn, as he's the only one really interested in going. They continued to sit around the fire talking and discussing 'the plan', as they called it, seeing of all the things that could go wrong.

And Owyn wasn't lying to himself, despite what the others often said. There were a lot of things that could go wrong with his plan. For one, a trainer could capture him. He had never been in a poke ball before, and he was fairly sure he never wanted to be. For the second, the receptionist could just turn him away.

He had collected a lot of change though, and he was fairly sure it was enough. Although he didn't know exactly how much it would cost to go. He also wasn't too concerned about the receptionist turning him away, as he could always just go on the boat anyways. He didn't like acting like a Dark Pokémon, but knew that sometimes their methods were necessary.

The main thing that frightened him however was that someone would try to catch him. He didn't fear battles, no he had fought far too many to be afraid to fight, what he was afraid of was capture. He liked his freedom dammit.

Of course, to even have a chance for the second he had to brave the first. Twice per day, there was a ship that sailed from the island to Canalave City. From Canalave City, it was hopefully possible to find a boat straight to Kalos. If not, he'd find a way there somehow.

But first he had to get to Canalave City. And that's why, the next day, just around dawn, Owyn found himself in the bushes waiting for the ferry to Canalave City. Around this time of year, it always came at the same time; a little after the sun came up. And it left shortly afterwards, and came back just after the sun had hit the highest point, and left right before dusk.

A small voice whispered from behind him, "So you're actually doing it huh?"

Owyn started, turning around quickly to see Anders behind him. The Riolu started chuckling softly, knowing that subtlety was their key right now. "Yeah. After all the planning last night how couldn't I?" Owyn nodded, turning back around to view the area that the ferry would dock in.

Anders came next to him, "You know, no one would think less of you to stop right now. Go back to training."

"I would. And you would too, I know it. The opportunity and idea for this comes around only a few times. The first step is the key."

"The opportunity comes around twice a day."

Owyn gave him a look at his words being read so literally. "You know what I mean. Besides, I want to know what Mega-Evolution is, don't you?"

"I do, but not badly enough to do all this." Anders grinned at him.

"Well I do. And besides, there's the boat now." Owyn pointed out. Anders had to crane his head a bit, but sure enough he saw the dramatic white wake that the ship often left behind it.

"So this is it, then. Got everything?" Anders asked, looking over at the Riolu next to him, who could barely contain his excitement.

"Yep. Got the coins, no idea how much. Where's everyone else?" Owyn asked, pulling up the small bag of coins next to him. The coins seemed to jingle happily as they were picked up.

"Still inside. Kai's asleep. They're gonna miss you, you know that." Anders said.

"And I them. Besides, I'll be back. Along with what Mega-Evolution is." Owyn said, trying to wrap the bag around him so the coins wouldn't bounce around as much. Anders grinned at him. The pair stood in silence, continuing to watch as the boat unloaded the trainers. Many of them Owyn had seen before training, some of them completely new.

Minutes passed with neither saying anything, continuing to wait for the boat to signal it was about to leave. Sure enough, within minutes later, the ferry started to let the other passengers back on, if they had stayed overnight or suddenly realized they wanted back on to Canalave City and didn't have a flying type on them.

"And that's your cue." Anders said, gently nudging Owyn forward. The Riolu grinned at him, already knowing that.

"Take care of everyone. You don't have your big guardian anymore." Owyn said, hefting the bag of coins, somehow silently.

"You? Big guardian? Ha. The Steelix do a better job of that than you do. Go and have fun Owyn. We'll miss you." Anders said, nudging Owyn forward, while taking a few steps back. The ferry wasn't far from them, and it would probably take a while before it left. But every minute gone was a minute wasted.

The path was treacherous for humans from where they were, full of sharp rocks, jagged edges, and Geodude. Owyn however knew the path by heart, nimbly bouncing around from rock to rock, avoiding the edges and the Geodude. Heck, he was even sure he saw one of them wave at him as he passed.

An odd thing for a Geodude to do, considering how much they talked. This is to say, never.

The path, which would've taken even an expert climber several hours to go up, and potentially an hour to get down unless they fell, in which it would've taken minutes, only took a few for Owyn. The path actually took him around the ferry, ending on a small platform which was only a small jump away from the bow, and the area it would take the humans the most amount of time to get to from the boarding on the back.

Owyn made the jump without missing a beat, landing gracefully near the boat's tip. The movement of the boat startled him a bit, before he learned the movement of the water and the ship. He knew now why humans sometimes get seasick. It was rather off-putting.

He had suspected he would have to wait a while before the boat got going, but to his surprise it seemed to start up shortly after he had got on. He had barely had any time to get acclimated to the ship, while looking white to the outside viewers had a bit of a dull brown rustish color on the actual topside. Owyn wondered why he had never noticed that before.

As the boat seemed to start to move forward, some of the humans had come aboard to the tip. Owyn suspected that he would have had to fight, but instead the trainers just seemed to ignore him. He still felt rather unsafe, so as more trainers got on-board he tried to find the highest point he could. He found it rather easily actually, the roof was fairly wide and would make it difficult to see him. However, none of the trainers tried to chase him, or do anything of the sort. It confused him until two of the trainers started talking with his earshot.

"What was with the jumpy Riolu?" one asked. Another of the trainers, one of the first that had Owyn had seen coming up to the front, responded.

"No one knows. It was here when I got here. I suspect it's probably some trainers and trying to find a way back. Common enough for Geodude to get stuck in Canalave City sometimes after finding their way onboard. Don't see why it couldn't happen to anything else."

Owyn shuffled the conversation aside, as something much more important to him had popped up on the Island side. A small group of Riolu, the same color as he, were waving at the boat. Some of the trainers had noticed, and wondering what was going on. But Owyn already knew.

Grinning, he started to wave back at the group of four…five…six…the number started increasing more and more. Evidently the news of the journey was already spreading far and wide of Owyn, the crazy Riolu who was attempting to go to Kalos to learn about Mega-Evolution. The sight of so many of the rare Pokémon sent many of the trainers into a scurry, trying to see what was going on. Owyn had chosen his 'hiding' spot well, as most of the trainers seemed to overlook him. Why they would get into a frenzy about so many all of a sudden when there was one right in their midst...well, he didn't know.

Owyn, with his spot near the top of the ferry, could see for the longest distance. As the island started to vanish from his sight, which took a startlingly small amount of time, he started to look forward, towards the horizon where he knew Canalave City sat, despite not being able to see it yet. He took a deep breath of the fresh sea air, now practically the only Pokémon still out on the ship. He was looking straight ahead.

Towards his future.


	2. To Canalave City

Alright. Thanks everyone for the encouraging words. Feel free to review listing the hundreds of plot holes in here, and of course grammatical mistakes (there's quite a few). I hope this lives up to everyone's expectations. Also I suck at figuring out what needs capitals and what doesn't...kind of annoying...

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><p>One Step Further<p>

Chapter 2 - To Canalave City!

Owyn honestly thought that the trip from Iron Island to Canalave City wouldn't take too long. Maybe about an hour or so. Instead, he found himself on a leisurely ferry that took about a quarter of the day. No wonder the ferry only came twice a day; that's all it could do!

As it was, he was sitting on the very top of the ship, with probably one of the best views he could get. Surprisingly few people looked up, and the roof was wide enough that they had to be at the very front of the ship to see his black ears. So he felt pretty safe, but he was bored.

At first the fact he was actually doing this was enough to keep him excited, and then it was the sight of so many different pokémon, even if they were generally fairly common, like tentacool or wingull. However, after a couple of hours of nothing but those pokémon, even he could get a bit…anxious. Though seeing that pack of wailmer a while ago was amazing! He didn't really get a good look, but seeing all the trainers go into a frenzy about it certainly made him chuckle. Apparently they were worried about having the boat tipped over.

As he stood up, trying to massage the life back into his legs, he realized he still couldn't see Canalave City. He couldn't see Iron Island either, but that made sense to him because he hadn't been able to see that for ages. There was hardly a cloud in the sky, and as Owyn flopped onto his back he made the mistake of staring straight into the sun.

"Well, what do we have here?" a voice came from around him. Owyn jumped up, looking ready to fight despite still having his eyes closed. He could tell where the voice was coming from, somewhere on his left and above him, but he couldn't see anything. Blasted sun.

"Relax. I'm not here to hurt you. Just wondering what you're doing here. I mean this is usually where I roost. And the others," the voice continued. Owyn stared blankly at it, trying to make it out. He could tell it was a bird of some sort, and not a big one either. The voice chuckled a bit, as much as a bird could, "I'll just wait here patiently while your vision comes back."

The colors rearranged themselves nicely for Owyn, who saw a small starly next to him. Barely a quarter of his size, he knew the Pokémon could very easily take him down if it wanted to. Alternatively, it was a starly, and they weren't the strongest of Pokémon. "Who are you?"

"Me? I'm Starlee!" The starly chirped, coming around and hopping closer to Owyn. The riolu stared at the bird, wondering if he heard correctly.

"Star…lee? Isn't that just your species name?" He asked. The starly did a decent impression of grinning, despite lacking the muscles to be able to.

"Yeah. That was a joke; I don't actually have a name. Some around here though call me Flyer. Starly don't usually get a name until we evolve. Too many of us, and we breed a lot. So I guess you can call me Flyer then, if you want." The starly said. Owyn stared at him.

"So, Flyer, then. What're you doing here?" Owyn asked, struggling to find someplace to grasp what was going on. A random starly flew onto the roof to talk to him? He knew that starly were fairly common, but apparently extremely common if they didn't have a name until they evolved. All riolu were pretty much named at birth, but that might've been because there were already so few of them…

"I come out here to rest every once in a while. People down there give free food, and most of the experienced trainers that go to Iron Island don't usually care about a lowly starly. So hey, free food and no fear of capture. But what are you doing here, Mr. Oh-So-Rare-Pokémon?" Flyer answered, preening his feathers clean.

Owyn gave a small glare. It was true, he knew, but that didn't mean he liked the way Flyer put it. "I'm going to Kalos," he said quickly, knowing that the starly would either laugh at him or say it was near impossible. Impossible it may be, but that doesn't stop him from trying.

"Kalos? Land of the star people? Why would you head there? There's nothing out there except for that giant tower," Flyer said, tilting his head towards the side. Owyn was rather surprised at the bird pokémon; he didn't like reading the emotions of other beings, but he still knew how and it was somewhat automatic, despite Owyn's attempts at controlling it. The feelings he got from Flyer were legitimate wondering. Weird bird.

"Land of the star people? I'm going there to learn about Mega-Evolution," Owyn said, leaving the fact that he wanted to learn about it to do it himself unsaid. He was fairly sure he didn't want that kind of information to just spread out. Most pokémon would just laugh him off though, so he wondered why he was so paranoid around Flyer.

"Mega-Evolution huh. Good luck learning about it. But all the way to Kalos just for that? Surely there has to be more to the story. How are you going to get there, for one?"

"By boat. And I'm going there to learn how to do it!"

"You've got this all figured out haven't you… good luck though. I don't think any boats go all the way to Kalos. By the way, Canalave City should be in sight soon. You may want to jump off beforehand and swim the rest of the way, if you can with that heavy bag of coins with you. Most of the trainers here are pretty experienced, but even then seeing a wild riolu is pretty rare." Flyer said, unfurling his wings and taking off. He flew around the boat a few times, apparently looking for some food.

"Wait, Flyer! What do you mean by that?" Owyn asked, rather softly. The bird Pokémon seemed rather eager to just ignore him. Owyn got the sense the bird was ignoring him, rather than just not hearing him, but he tried again just in case, just a bit louder.

He did turn his head to look over to Owyn, but seemed to quickly just fly away. None of the trainers ever even looked up to the bird pokémon. It was as if he was completely invisible.

Owyn kept his eyes trained on Flyer for as long as he could, as Canalave City still wasn't see-able yet. The whoosh of another set of wings landing behind him made Owyn do a quick turn-around. Flyer was still in sight, so it couldn't have been him.

Sitting in front of him was one of the many wingull that he had watched practically surfing the ocean's waves. "Hi!" it said cheerfully, lifting one of its wings up in a kind of mock wave that humans did sometimes.

"Uh…hi," Owyn said back carefully. First Flyer and now this one…the only thing missing was some fish that managed to hop its way onto the top of the ferry!

"Met Flyer did you? He's a weird one, that starly," the wingull continued, not waiting for Owyn to say anything. "What're you doing on the boat? Shouldn't you be 'training' somewhere? You fighting types are always going on about that," it said.

This time the pause was longer than a second, which made Owyn realized that it wanted an answer. "I'm heading to Canalave City," Owyn said simply.

The wingull held up one of its wings, "Say no more! I know perfectly well the lure of that city. So bright, full of food, easy access to clean air…its perfect! But you know it isn't quite the city of love you're thinking of, so for one of you I'd suggest you head back to Iron Island and find a nice girl there." The wingull crossed its wings and nodded its head, as if agreeing with everything it was saying.

Another flutter from behind Owyn came down. Fortunately the voice that accompanied it was far more welcome than this stranger. "Shut up Wingull Number…which one are you? Seven? The love-obsessed one that can't find anyone? That's number seven right?"

"I have a name you know! It's Amori!" the wingull practically shouted at the top of her lungs.

"No it's not, Seven, it's Seven and you know it," Flyer rebutted. Owyn had taken a step back and was watching the two bird pokémon argue like it was a tennis match, his head flying back and forth between whoever was talking at the time.

"Amori!"

"Seven!"

"Amori!"

"Seven!"

They continued on in this way for much longer than Owyn was interested. He did a quick turnaround to see if Canalave City was in sight yet; it was, but just barely, its blue roofs only just visible. As a quick curiosity, he tried to get an aura reading from both Flyer and…Amori? Seven? Whatever her name was.

He was rather surprised then, that the waves coming off both of them signaled boredom. Complete and utter boredom. The confusion must've shown easily on his face, as the 'argument' stopped abruptly.

"What's wrong?" Flyer asked, his head tilting. Amori also looked at him as if trying to assess what his problem was.

"It's just…why are you two arguing if you're so bored?" Owyn asked back. There were so many other things for them to do than argue with each other. Like train. Or ensure you get something to eat. Although Owyn had never had any trouble with either of those…

"It's something to do. Besides, the humans can't understand us, so to them it looks like we're having an intelligent conversation," Flyer replied, Amori folding her wings and nodding her head. Owyn stared at the two in almost disbelief. They were bored, almost extremely so, and yet they were continuing to argue? These two birds were weird.

"You might want to leave soon. The ferry drivers do a check after each run to make sure that there aren't any strays on the boat after it docks," Amori said, stretching her wings a bit. Flyer took off quickly in the direction of Canalave City, now much closer than it was. The building were starting to gain definition, and Owyn could easily tell where the ferry's dock was.

"You got a choice to make here," Amori said quickly. Owyn turned to see that the wingull was getting ready to take off, her talons gripping the edge easily. Taking his silence as a go ahead, she continued, "You can either jump off and swim the rest of the way to the dock, but there will be humans that want to catch you, or you can jump off and swim to the beach. It's a bit far, but it's easy to go from there to the rest of the city."

"What if I just stayed on the boat and got off like the other passengers?" Owyn asked. Before she could answer, he continued, "And are the docks the only place for boat fares and such?"

She blinked at him in confusion for a while, before answering slowly, "Um…no idea. As for boat fares…probably. I wouldn't know, I don't stick around the city much. Too many of us. But if you want to dive in, just follow me, I'll lead you the rest of the way!"

She didn't give Owyn much time to think, as she suddenly took off in the direction of the city. He weighed the choices she had given him and decided upon a plan of action. He grabbed the bag of coins, hugging it close to his body, while quickly taking two steps before diving into the ocean's water, the cold washing over him.

True to form, he was going to take the way that would lead to some training opportunities. He was never too fond of swimming; the water just didn't give as much resistance as he thought it should. Although that was probably for the best; otherwise many water pokémon would be much stronger than they already were.

It wasn't as clear as Owyn thought it was looking from the top. It was a slightly murky color underneath the surface, getting darker as it went down, eventually looking like an infinite abyss. It wasn't quite murky enough to not be able to see the varieties of other pokémon almost lazily swimming around.

Mantine's could be seen near the bottom, their shadows barely coming out of the darkness of the bottom. Remoraid's and magikarp were almost everywhere, and surprisingly even a few feebas could be seen, albeit hiding in the shadow of the other fish schools.

But most of that didn't matter too much to Owyn. If he was going to use the ocean as a training exercise, then he would use the ocean as a training exercise. Coming up to the surface close to the ferry, he could still easily make out Amori flying in circles trying to find him. He gripped the bag of coins close to him. He would have to change up how he swam because of it.

A riolu's native swimming technique was a variation of the dog paddle, but with some of the human's breast stroke fit in. Because of their almost human-ish appearance however, most riolu learned some variation of the freestyle, due to the ease and quickness of movement along the surface.

Owyn did neither of these. Instead he did an almost dolphin-like movement, his entire body becoming stiffer and more rigid as he practically flew underneath the water. Occasionally he went to the surface to make sure he could still see Amori, which was more difficult than it sounds due to the wingull's blue and white body. But see her he did, and then he dove back under for another sprint.

The boat was far behind him by the time that he realized he should probably check how close the city was. The white of the city's bricks shone off the sun within easy sight, so it probably wouldn't be too far. Mostly another sprint or two at his current rate. Amori was continuing to be in front of him, flying an easy speed towards the blue roofs that Canalave City specializes in.

The city was split into multiple sections, all separated by the canals spread throughout the city. There were only three ways to get across any one canal; a drawbridge that would open and close when it needed to, going across the boats, or swimming across. Not many humans swam across, preferring to go across the bridges or if they were in a hurry go and get a boat ticket.

It was into one of these canals that Owyn swam into. He could tell immediately when he went into one, as the water current that had been pushing him forward was suddenly slowed, as if there was a small current going from the canals to the ocean.

Each canal had stairs leading up to the main roads every few hundred feet, with the massive docks that the ferry would drift into built in a considerably sized lake area. As soon as Owyn put his paw up on one of the stairs he let out a small hiss into the water.

The bricks were burning hot! At least compared to the cold water that he had gotten used to swimming in for a while. Baring his teeth and wanting to get the temperature change over with, he pulled himself onto the stairs, the steps being used as small chair as he tried to shake out his fur. He gently put down the bag of coins and hoped none fell out during the swim.

A flap of wings behind him let him know that someone was behind him, probably Amori. Sure enough, the wingull had landed right behind him. "Have a nice drip…drip?" She asked, her face looking particularly proud of herself for coming up with it.

"More than you know," Owyn replied, making sure that he caught her in his shake out. He grinned at her embarrassed squawk as she attempted to flee from the riolu-made rain. "How do we get from here to the ferry center? I've never been to Canalave City before," Owyn asked.

"It's easy enough from here. Follow the road at the top of these stairs to the lake near the end. It's the really big building that has a blue roof that isn't the library or the gym. Also, stay away from the gym. I mean it," Amori replied, flying on top of the stairs onto some railings that were intended to keep people from falling over into the canals.

Owyn could tell she was being serious about the gym, so he nodded seriously back. It would be bad for his plans if he was caught and wasn't even in Kalos yet! If he was going to get caught, he should at least make it to Kalos first…

But as time went on, and Owyn's fur slowly dried in the sun, he got less worried about the humans and more amazed at what they've done. Canalave City was amazing! The bricks were a sparkling white, both on the buildings and on the pathways, with the sides being a light grey to denounce where the roads were. The bridges crisscrossed the canals like a spider's web, the light reflecting off their light brown woods.

Each of the buildings had their own personality to them too! Some had plants in the windows, others had glameow's lying about in the sun on the windowsill. The windows were near perfectly clear and each one offered Owyn a different view into a different life. Some had pictures of humans at various ages near a central area, others were fairly plain but for posters of what Owyn assumed were attractive human girls.

Even the humans on the streets didn't seem to mind Owyn too much, just casually going around him while continuing with their conversations. Some had even tried to pet him! Owyn had smacked that hand away quickly enough but it showed that they did not have any fear of pokémon. At least none of Owyn's size. It may have been that he was carrying the small sack of coins with him as well.

The streets weren't all that crowded, but it was still enough to make Owyn's aura sense ability go haywire. Emotions were rampant everywhere, and it took all of his training to try to ignore it. Were all humans as easy to read as these were? The ones on the boat weren't, but he had chalked that up to distance.

Within far less time than Owyn had thought, the city opened to a near startlingly clear lake. Houses and shops had ended some time back, but the streets didn't and seem to continue on forever. He could see the enormous building easily now that he was so close, and it really was enormous. It was probably as big as some of the caves on Iron Island!

As he walked closer, he realized why it was so big. It covered quite a bit of the docks as well, as well as an entranceway. If Owyn had known the comparison, he would have compared to the likes of an airport; complete with all the functions of one too.

The entranceway was gated only by two automatic glass doors, people going in and out in an almost constant stream. Owyn was hesitant if he should just walk in or go another way. He hadn't made up his mind yet when he heard Amori land next to him.

"Going in anytime soon?" she asked.

"Yeah, I am. Just not sure on how to do it though," Owyn explained, continuing to weigh the pros and cons. The biggest worry he had was obviously being caught, but considering that he had just walked nearly one half a mile without anyone even giving him a second glance he didn't think he had to worry too much. The other was whether or not they would take his money.

"Just walk in. Can't be that bad. Who knows, maybe you'll find someone!" Amori spoke excitedly before flying off to the top of the building. Owyn preferred to think of her staring at him was a thing of silently cheering him on, vs hoping that he would find another of his kind here. Seriously, what pokémon would go on a trip like this just for that?

Shaking his head to stop any unwanted thoughts, he gripped the bag and walked closer to the automatic doors. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to activate them. He had watched the humans just get closer and they would open, but how did the doors tell? Were there pokémon that opened the doors when someone got close enough?

As he was still contemplating how to open the doors, he had continued walking forwards. Sure enough, when he got close enough the doors opened wide open. Taking a good look at the sides and seeing nothing, he figured that he would get to the bottom of it later. For now, he had other things to worry about.

And what other things there were! The inside of the building was as expansive as one would think from the outside. The floor was a cement grey, tiled over with small grooves running all over. The walls were a cold grey, a lighter color than the floor but altogether it seemed like it just made the air much colder than it actually was. Small windows underneath the ceiling on the walls were about the only thing to bring in actual light.

The building itself was one giant room. Several of the small ferries were floating off one of the docks. A single much larger boat taking up the majority of the water space. In front of the docks were a few turnstiles, along with several desks and rows upon rows of chairs.

The desks were of chest height on humans, but Owyn would barely be able to see over the top if he was right next to it. Even then, he would probably have to jump either on the desk itself or hold himself up, once it got to his turn that is.

There was a fairly large line of various humans in front of the desks. They ranged from young and small to being much older and much bigger, to even the elders. Owyn could even very easily see the poké balls hanging off some of their belts. A few of them even had some smaller pokémon out, like glameow's or skitties.

It surprised a few people when Owyn decided to say 'screw it' and hop in the back of the line. A few surprised looks from the people in the chairs looking their way was about the most attention that he got. Then the whispers started of a riolu standing in line.

One of the skitties had decided to come up to him, "Hi. What're you doing?" She asked nicely, her head tilting in confusion.

"I'm heading to Kalos. This is where I do that right?" Owyn asked, hiding his nervousness as best he could. The skitty looked thoughtful for a moment before responding.

"Yes it is, I think. If you have enough you may get a straight shot, but those cost a lot and you usually have to wait a while for that boat to get here. Why are you going to Kalos?"

"To learn about Mega-Evolution," Owyn answered, with no hint of nervousness whatsoever. With saying it out loud, he reaffirmed himself that this is what he was doing, regardless of what happened. He could do this. He had to do this.

"Mega-Evolution? Don't you need a trainer for that?" asked one of the glameow's listening in. Owyn turned to the cat pokémon, its tail making almost hypnotic movements left and right. Several of the other loose pokémon were also paying more attention to the riolu.

Several of the humans in line had heard the whisper that there was a riolu in line. When they turned, sure enough there was Owyn talking to many of their own pokémon. Rather than disturb the scene, especially because many of them weren't trainers but just had pets, they decided to try and keep the peace.

One person had thought about trying to capture it, but seeing everyone else back away decided to let it be. There were always more riolu, after all.

"You do need a trainer for Mega-Evolution. It says so on TV!"

"That's why I'm going to Kalos. I'm going to find out!" Owyn proclaimed.

"But why find out when it's already on TV?" responded one. "If the humans haven't found a way what makes you think you will?" asked another.

"Just because it's on TV doesn't make it true, and that's why I'm going," Owyn said, starting to tire out. He had answered the same questions like five different ways. The line was moving, slowly but surely.

There were three people at the desk, two girls and one male. They all seemed to be wearing the same thing, a kind of blue overcoat with a pin on it. They looked tired, like they had been sitting there all day handling the customers.

Owyn was cut short from trying to figure out how to make all the pokémon stop asking him useless questions as one of the receptionists, the one on the far left, had opened up. "I can help whoever is next," she called out, before realizing the crowd was staring at something. "What're you all staring at?" she asked.

"There's a riolu in line."

"In line? Bring him here," she said, "this shouldn't take more than second. We'll find his trainer then get him on the right boat."

Owyn popped up in front of her, holding the bag of coins. He plopped the coins down then pointed towards the ticket for Kalos. The receptionist - her tag listed her name as 'Jennifer' - looked blankly at him before looking towards her coworkers. "Any help?" she pleaded. Her two co-workers grinned at her before breaking out laughing.

The male receptionist got up, "I'll find whose riolu it is. His trainer couldn't have gotten far," he said as he left to go ask the people still sitting down in the chairs if they knew anything.

"Can I get a ticket to Kalos?" Owyn asked after waiting a moment.

Jennifer stared blankly. "I can't understand you. Do you know where you need to go?" she asked. At Owyn's nod, she gave a sigh of relief before pulling out a small copy of a world map.

"Alright, so point at where you need to go," she told him. She gave a quick look to the other receptionist that was actually doing something, but all he gave her was a quick shake. No one knew whose riolu this was.

Owyn quickly found that he had no idea where he was in relation to the map. It was zoomed out pretty far, and the country names were sometimes over water instead of a specific place. He was trying to ignore the snickering from the other pokémon behind him. Figuring that something was better than nothing, he put his paw down on the word "Kalos" rather than the country itself.

Not that he knew what Kalos looked like.

"Kalos. You're going to Kalos?" Jennifer asked out loud. At Owyn's nod, she did a quick figure for the tickets, "It's about 4,500 or so. Do you have that much?"

Owyn upended the bag of coins, coins spilling out everywhere. "Sorry…" he replied. He knew that she couldn't understand him, but he would hate to be her right now.

Jennifer sighed before pulling the coins out. Fortunately there were of fairly good size, but she was ignoring her other co-worker, who was now laughing hysterically on the ground. "Sorry, sir…err…ma'am…err…what do I call you? There's not quite enough here for a straight ticket, but there is enough if you don't mind going to Unova first."

Unova? He took another quick look at the map which she hadn't taken away yet, and saw that it was still on his way. He'd still be making progress, just not as much or as quickly. That's alright to him; he was in this for the long haul.

He nodded his head towards Jennifer, who simply took another look at all the piles of coins and sighed, before printing out the ticket. "Alright, so the ship leaves in about thirty minutes. If you want you can through that area over there," she said while pointing to the area that lead to the giant ship, "and wait on the ship, or you could wait around here."

Owyn was gone before she had even finished her little speech. The ticket was in his paw, and he had somehow managed to snag the map as well, and was well on his way onto the ship.

"So did you figure out whose riolu that was?" Jennifer asked as her other co-worker, the one that had actually got up to do something, came back.

"Yeah. It was wild," he answered before returning to the help the person in front of him. Jennifer sighed again. It would be a lot easier to take if Tracey would shut up for two seconds and stop laughing.

For Owyn's part, he had actually gone onto the ship, and rather than looking around he decided to skip it and go onto the roof again. It worked the first time, so to him, it would work again. He only had to wait another half-hour before he would continue on his way. He could wait that long.

* * *

><p>So that's chapter 2. A significant downgrade from chapter 1, but I've always been better at beginnings than middle or endings. Thank you for reading.<p> 


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